BL 2725 
.L5 
1915 
Copy 1 



I 



THE 



Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 

A LECTURE 

BY 

Robert G. Ingersoll. 



ALSO 



A TRIBUTE TO HIS BROTHER 

Ebon C. Ingersoll. 



Liberty sustains the same relation to mind that space does to matter. 



NEW YORK 

C. P. FARRELL, PUBLISHER 

1915 



1*1 1 



< 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by 

ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 

Copyright renewed for 14 years from 1879. 






THE LIBERTY OF 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 



Liberty sustains the same Relation to Mind that Space 
does to Matter. 

THERE is no slavery but ignorance. Liberty 
is the child of intelligence. 
The history of man is simply the history of 
slavery, of injustice and brutality, together with 
the means by which he has, through the dead and 
desolate years, slowly and painfully advanced. He 
has been the sport and prey of priest and king, the 
food of superstition and cruel might. Crowned 
force has governed ignorance through fear. Hy- 
pocrisy and tyranny — two vultures — have fed 
upon the liberties of man. From all these there 
has been, and is, but one means of escape — intel- 
lectual development. Upon the back of industry 
has been the whip. Upon the brain have been the 
fetters of superstition. Nothing has been left 



33© THE LIBERTY OF 

undone by the enemies of freedom. Every art 
and artifice, every cruelty and outrage has been 
practiced and perpetrated to destroy the rights of 
man. In this great struggle every crime has been 
rewarded and every virtue has been punished. 
Reading, writing, thinking and investigating have 
all been crimes. 

Every science has been an outcast. 

All the altars and all the thrones united to 
arrest the forward march of the human race. The 
king said that mankind must not work for them- 
selves. The priest said that mankind must not 
think for themselves. One forged chains for the 
hands, the other for the soul. Under this infamous 
regime the eagle of the human intellect was for 
ages a slimy serpent of hypocrisy. 

The human race was imprisoned. Through 
some of the prison bars came a few struggling rays 
of light. Against these bars Science pressed its 
pale and thoughtful face, wooed by the holy dawn 
of human advancement. Bar after bar was broken 
away. A few grand men escaped and devoted 
their lives to the liberation of their fellows. 

Only a few years ago there was a great 
awakening of the human mind. Men began to 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. ?3* 

inquire by what right a crowned robber made 
them work for him? The man who asked this 
question was called a traitor. Others asked by 
what right does a robed hypocrite rule my thought ? 
Such men were called infidels. The priest said, 
and the king said, where is this spirit of investiga- 
tion to stop? They said then and they say now, 
that it is dangerous for man to be free. I deny it. 
Out on the intellectual sea there is room enough 
for every sail. In the intellectual air there is space 
enough for every wing. 

The man who does not do his Own thinking is a 
slave, and is a traitor to himself and to his fellow- 
men. 

Every man should stand under the blue and 
stars, under the infinite flag of nature, the peer of 
every other man. 

Standing in the presence of the Unknown, all 
have the same right to think, and all are equally 
interested in the great questions of origin and 
destiny. All I claim, all I plead for, is liberty of 
thought and expression. That is all. I do not 
pretend to tell what is absolutely true, but what I 
think is true. I do not pretend to tell all the truth. 

I do not claim that I have floated level with the 



332 THE LIBERTY OF 

heights of thought, or that I have descended to the 
very depths of things. I simply claim that what 
ideas I have, I have a right to express; and that 
any man who denies that right to me is an intel- 
lectual thief and robber. That is all. 

Take those chains from the human soul. Break 
those fetters. If I have no right to think, why 
have I a brain? If I have no such right, have 
three or four men, or any number, who may get 
together, and sign a creed, and build a house, and 
put a steeple upon it, and a bell in it — have they 
the right to think? The good men, the good 
women are tired of the whip and lash in the realm 
of thought. They remember the chain and fagot 
with a shudder. They are free, and they give 
liberty to others. Whoever claims any right that 
he is unwilling to accord to his fellow-men is dis- 
honest and infamous. 

In the good old times, our fathers had the idea 
that they could make people believe to suit them. 
Our ancestors, in the ages that are gone, really 
believed that by force you could convince a man. 
You cannot change the conclusion of the brain by 
torture; nor by social ostracism. But I will tell 
you what you can do by these, and what you have 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 333 

done. You can make hypocrites by the million. 
You can make a man say that he has changed his 
mind; but he remains of the same opinion still. 
Put fetters all over him; crush his feet in iron 
boots; stretch him to the last gasp upon the holy 
rack ; burn him, if you please, but his ashes will be 
of the same opinion still. 

Our fathers in the good old times — and the 
best thing I can say about them is, that they have 
passed away — had an idea that they could force 
men to think their way. That idea is still prevalent 
in many parts, even of this country. Even in our 
day some extremely religious people say, "We will 
not trade with that man ; we will not vote for him ; 
we will not hire him if he is a lawyer ; we will die 
before we will take his medicine if he is a doctor; 
we will not invite him to dinner ; we will socially 
ostracise him; he must come to our church; he 
must believe our doctrines; he must worship our 
god or we will not in any way contribute to his 
support/' 

In the old times of which I have spoken, 
they desired to make all men think exactly alike. 
All the mechanical ingenuity of the world cannot 
make two clocks run exactly alike, and how are you 



334 THE LIBERTY OF 

going to make hundreds of millions of people, dif- 
fering in brain and disposition, in education and 
aspiration, in conditions and surroundings, each 
clad in a living robe of passionate flesh — how are 
you going to make them think and feel alike ? If 
there is an infinite god, one who made us, and 
wishes us to think alike, why did he give a spoonful 
of brains to one, and a magnificent intellectual 
development to another? Why is it that we have 
all degrees of intelligence, from orthodoxy to 
genius, if it was intended that all should think and 
feel alike? 

I used to read in books how our fathers perse- 
cuted mankind. But I never appreciated it. I read 
it, but it did not burn itself into my soul. I did not 
really appreciate the infamies that have been com- 
mitted in the name of religion, until I saw the iron 
arguments that Christians used. I saw the Thumb- 
screw — two little pieces of iron, armed on the 
inner surfaces with protuberances, to prevent their 
slipping ; through each end a screw uniting the two 
pieces. And when some man denied the efficacy 
of baptism, or may be said, " I do not believe that 
a fish ever swallowed a man to keep him from 
drowning/' then they put his thumb between these 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 335 

pieces of iron and in the name of love and 
universal forgiveness, began to screw these pieces 
together. When this was done most men said, "I 
will recant." Probably I should have done the 
same. Probably I would have said : " Stop ; I will 
admit anything that you wish; I will admit that 
there is one god or a million, one hell or a billion ; 
suit yourselves ; but stop." 

But there was now and then a man who would 
not swerve the breadth of a hair. There was now 
and then some sublime heart, willing to die for an 
intellectual conviction. Had it not been for such 
men, we would be savages to-night. Had it not 
been for a few brave, heroic souls in every age, we 
would have been cannibals, with pictures of wild 
beasts tattooed upon our flesh, dancing around 
some dried snake fetich. 

Let us thank every good and noble man who 
stood so grandly, so proudly, in spite of opposition, 
of hatred and death, for what he believed to be the 
truth. 

Heroism did not excite the respect of our 
fathers. The man who would not recant was not 
forgiven. They screwed the thumbscrews down to 
the last pang, and then threw their victim into some 



336 THE LIBERTY OF 

dungeon, where, in the throbbing silence and dark- 
ness, he might suffer the agonies of the fabled 
damned. This was done in the name of love — in 
the name of mercy — in the name of the compas- 
sionate Christ. 

I saw, too, what they called the Collar of 
Torture. Imagine a circle of iron, and on the 
inside a hundred points almost as sharp as needles. 
This argument was fastened about the throat of 
the sufferer. Then he could not walk, nor sit 
down, nor stir without the neck being punctured by 
these points. In a little while the throat would 
begin to swell, and suffocation would end the 
agonies of that man. This man, it may be, had 
committed the crime of saying, with tears upon his 
cheeks, "I do not believe that God, the father of 
us all, will damn to eternal perdition any of the 
children of men." 

I saw another instrument, called the Scaven- 
ger's Daughter. Think of a pair of shears with 
handles, not only where they now are, but at the 
points as well, and just above the pivot that unites 
the blades, a circle of iron. In the upper handles 
the hands would be placed ; in the lower, the feet ; 
and through the iron ring, at the centre, the head 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 337 

of the victim would be forced. In this condition, 
he would be thrown prone upon the earth, and the 
strain upon the muscles produced such agony that 
insanity would in pity end his pain. 

This was done by gentlemen who said: "Who- 
soever smiteth thee upon one cheek turn to him the 
other also." 

I saw the Rack. This was a box like the bed of 
a wagon, with a windlass at each end, with levers, 
and ratchets to prevent slipping; over each wind- 
lass went chains ; some were fastened to the ankles 
of the sufferer; others to his wrists. And then 
priests, clergymen, divines, saints, began turning 
these windlasses, and kept turning, until the ankles, 
the knees, the hips, the shoulders, the elbows, the 
wrists of the victim were all dislocated, and the 
sufferer was wet with the sweat of agony. And 
they had standing by a physician to feel his pulse. 
What for? To save his life? Yes. In mercy? 
No ; simply that they might rack him once again. 

This was done, remember, in the name of civil- 
ization ; in the name of law and order ; in the name 
of mercy ; in the name of religion ; in the name 
of the most merciful Christ. 

Sometimes, when I read and think about these 



338 THE LIBERTY OE 

frightful things, it seems to me that I have suffered 
all these horrors myself. It seems sometimes, as 
though I had stood upon the shore of exile and 
gazed with tearful eyes toward home and native 
land ; as though my nails had been torn from my 
hands, and into the bleeding quick needles had 
been thrust ; as though my feet had been crushed 
in iron boots ; as though I had been chained in the 
cell of the Inquisition and listened with dying ears 
for the coming footsteps of release ; as though I 
had stood upon the scaffold and had seen the 
glittering axe fall upon me ; as though I had been 
upon the rack and had seen, bending above me, 
the white faces of hypocrite priests ; as though I 
had been taken from my fireside, from my wife and 
children, taken to the public square, chained ; as 
though fagots had been piled about me ; as though 
the flames had climbed around my limbs and 
scorched my eyes to blindness, and as though my 
ashes had been scattered to the four winds, by all 
the countless hands of hate. And when I so feel, 
I swear that while I live I will do what little I 
can to preserve and to augment the liberties of 
man, woman, and child. 

It is a question of justice, of mercy, of honesty* 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 339 

of intellectual development. If there is a man in 
the world who is not willing to give to every human 
being every right he claims for himself, he is just so 
much nearer a barbarian than I am. It is a ques- 
tion of honesty. The man who is not willing to 
give to every other the same intellectual rights he 
claims for himself, is dishonest, selfish, and brutal. 

It is a question of intellectual development. 
Whoever holds another man responsible for his 
honest thought, has a deformed and distorted brain. 
It is a question of intellectual development. 

A little while ago I saw models of nearly every- 
thing that man has made. I saw models of all the 
water craft, from the rude dug-out in which floated 
a naked savage — one of our ancestors — a naked 
savage, with teeth two inches in length, with a 
spoonful of brains in the back of his head — I saw 
models of all the water craft of the world, from that 
dug-out up to a man-of-war, that carries a hundred 
guns and miles of canvas — from that dug-out to 
the steamship that turns its brave prow from the 
port of New York, with a compass like a con- 
science, crossing three thousand miles of billows 
without missing a throb or beat of its mighty iron 
heart. 



34° 1 BE LIBERTY OF 

I saw at the same time the weapons that man 
has made, from a club, such as was grasped by 
that same savage, when he crawled from his den in 
the ground and hunted a snake for his dinner; 
from that club to the boomerang, to the sword, to 
the cross-bow, to the blunderbuss, to the flint-lock, 
to the cap-lock, to the needle-gun, up to a cannon 
cast by Krupp, capable of hurling a ball weighing 
two thousand pounds through eighteen inches of 
solid steel. 

I saw, too, the armor from the shell of a turtle, 
that one of our brave ancestors lashed upon his 
breast when he went to fight for his country ; the 
skin of a porcupine, dried with the quills on, which 
this same savage pulled over his orthodox head, 
up to the shirts of mail, that were worn in the 
Middle Ages, that laughed at the edge of the 
sword and defied the point of the spear; up to a 
monitor clad in complete steel. 

I saw at the same time, their musical instru- 
ments, from the tom-tom — that is, a hoop with a 
couple of strings of raw hide drawn across it — 
from that tom-tom, up to the instruments we 
have to-day, that make the common air blossom 
with melody. 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 34* 

I saw, too, their paintings, from a daub of 
yellow mud, to the great works which now adorn 
the galleries of the world. I saw also their sculp- 
ture, from the rude god with four legs, a half dozen 
arms, several noses, and two or three rows of ears, 
and one little, contemptible, brainless head, up to 
the figures of to-day — to the marbles that genius 
has clad in such a personality that it seems almost 
impudent to touch them without an introduction. 

I saw their books — books written upon skins of 
wild beasts — upon shoulder-blades of sheep — 
books written upon leaves, upon bark, up to the 
splendid volumes that enrich the libraries of our 
day. When I speak of libraries, I think of the 
remark of Plato: " A house that has a library in 
it has a soul." 

I saw their implements of agriculture, from a 
crooked stick that was attached to the horn of an 
ox by some twisted straw, to the agricultural imple- 
ments of this generation, that make it possible 
for a man to cultivate the soil without being an 
ignoramus. 

While looking upon these things I was forced to 
say that man advanced only as he mingled his 
thought with his labor, — only as he got into part- 



342 THE LIBERTY OF 

nership with the forces of nature, — only as he 
learned to take advantage of his surroundings — 
only as he freed himself from the bondage of fear, 
— only as he depended upon himself — only as he 
lost confidence in the gods. 

I saw at the same time a row of human skulls, 
from the lowest skull that has been found, the 
Neanderthal skull — skulls from Central Africa, 
skulls from the Bushmen of Australia — skulls from 
the farthest isles of the Pacific sea — up to the best 
skulls of the last generation; — and I noticed that 
there was the same difference between those skulls 
that there was between the products of those skulls, 
and I said to myself, * 'After all, it is a simple ques- 
tion of intellectual development." There was the 
same difference between those skulls, the lowest 
and highest skulls, that there was between the dug- 
out and the man-of-war and the steamship, between 
the club and the Krupp gun, between the yellow 
daub and the landscape, between the tom-tom and 
an opera by Verdi. 

The first and lowest skull in this row was the 
den in which crawled the base and meaner instincts 
of mankind, and the last was a temple in which 
dwelt joy, liberty, and love. 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 343 

It is all a question of brain, of intellectual de- 
velopment. 

If we are nearer free than were our fathers, it 
is because we have better heads upon the average, 
and more brains in them. 

Now, I ask you to be honest with me. It makes 
no difference to you what I believe, nor what I wish 
to prove. I simply ask you to be honest. Divest 
your minds, for a moment at least, of all religious 
prejudice. Act, for a few moments, as though you 
were men and women. 

Suppose the king, if there was one, and the 
priest, if there was one, at the time this gentleman 
floated in the dug-out, and charmed his ears with 
the music of the tom-tom, had said : " That dug-out 
is the best boat that ever can be built by man ; the 
pattern of that came from on high, from the great 
god of storm and flood, and any man who says that 
he can improve it by putting a mast in it, with a sail 
upon it, is an infidel, and shall be burned at the 
stake ; " what, in your judgment — honor bright — 
would have been the effect upon the circumnaviga- 
tion of the globe ? 

Suppose the king, if there was one, and the 
priest, if there was one — and I presume there was 



344 THE LIBERTY OF 

a priest, because it was a very ignorant age — sup- 
pose this king and priest had said: "That tom-tom 
is the most beautiful instrument of music of which 
any man can conceive; that is the kind of music 
they have in heaven; an angel sitting upon the 
edge of a fleecy cloud, golden in the setting sun, 
playing upon that tom-tom, became so enraptured, 
so entranced with her own music, that in a kind of 
ecstasy she dropped it — that is how we obtained it; 
and any man who says that it can be improved by 
putting a back and front to it, and four strings, and 
a bridge, and getting a bow of hair with rosin, is a 
blaspheming wretch, and shall die the death," — I 
ask you, what effect would that have had upon 
music? If that course had been pursued, would 
the human ears, in your judgment, ever have been 
enriched with the divine symphonies of Beethoven ? 
Suppose the king, if there was one, and the 
priest, had said: "That crooked stick is the best 
plow that can be invented : the pattern of that plow 
was given to a pious farmer in a holy dream, and 
that twisted straw is the ne plus ultra of all twisted 
things, and any man who says he can make an im- 
provement upon that plow, is an atheist;" what, in 
your judgment, would have been the effect upon 
the science of agriculture ? 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 345 

But the people said, and the king and priest 
said: "We want better weapons with which to kill 
our fellow-Christians ; we want better plows, better 
music, better paintings, and whoever will give us 
better weapons, and better music, better houses to 
live in, better clothes, we will robe him in wealth, 
and crown him with honor." Every incentive was 
held out to every human being to improve these 
things. That is the reason the club has been 
changed to a cannon, the dug-out to a steamship, 
the daub to a painting ; that is the reason that the 
piece of rough and broken stone finally became a 
glorified statue. 

You must not, however, forget that the gen- 
tleman in the dug-out, the gentleman who was 
enraptured with the music of the tom-tom, and 
cultivated his land with a crooked stick, had a 
religion of his own. That gentlemen in the dug- 
out was orthodox. He was never troubled with 
doubts. He lived and died settled in his mind. 
He believed in hell ; and he thought he would be 
far happier in heaven, if he could just lean over and 
see certain people who expressed doubts as to the 
truth of his creed, gently but everlastingly broiled 
and burned. 



346 THE LIBERTY OF 

It is a very sad and unhappy fact that this man 
has had a great many intellectual descendants. It 
is also an unhappy fact in nature, that the ignorant 
multiply much faster than the intellectual. This 
fellow in the dug-out believed in a personal devil. 
His devil had a cloven hoof, a long tail, armed with 
a fiery dart; and his devil breathed brimstone. 
This devil was at least the equal of God ; not quite 
so stout but a little shrewder. And do you know 
there has not been a patentable improvement made 
upon that devil for six thousand years. 

This gentleman in the dug-out believed that God 
was a tyrant; that he would eternally damn the 
man who lived in accordance with his highest and 
grandest ideal. He believed that the earth was 
flat. He believed in a literal, burning, seething 
hell of fire and sulphur. He had also his idea of 
politics; and his doctrine was, might makes right. 
And it will take thousands of years before the 
world will reverse this doctrine, and believingly say, 
" Right makes might." 

All I ask is the same privilege to improve upon 
that gentleman's theology as upon his musical in- 
strument; the same right to improve upon his 
politics as upon his dug-out. That is all. I ask 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 347 

for the human soul the same liberty in every direc- 
tion. That is the only crime I have committed. I 
say, let us think. Let each one express his 
thought. Let us become investigators, not follow- 
ers, not cringers and crawlers. If there is in 
heaven an infinite being, he never will be satisfied 
with the worship of cowards and hypocrites. Hon- 
est unbelief, honest infidelity, honest atheism, will 
be a perfume in heaven when pious hypocrisy, no 
matter how religious it may be outwardly, will be a 
stench. 

This is my doctrine : Give every other human 
being every right you claim for yGurself. Keep 
your mind open to the influences of nature. Re- 
ceive new thoughts with hospitality. Let us 
advance. 

The religionist of to-day wants the ship of his 
soul to lie at the wharf of orthodoxy and rot in the 
sun. He delights to hear the sails of old opinions 
flap against the masts of old creeds. He loves to 
see the joints and the sides open and gape in the 
sun, and it is a kind of bliss for him to repeat again 
and again: "Do not disturb my opinions. Do not 
unsettle my mind ; I have it all made up, and I 
want no infidelity. Let me go backward rather 
than forward.' ' 



348 THE LIBERTY OF 

As far as I am concerned I wish to be out on the 
high seas. I wish to take my chances with wind, 
and wave, and star. And I had rather go down in 
the glory and grandeur of the storm, than to rot in 
any orthodox harbor whatever. 

After all, we are improving from age to age. 
The most orthodox people in this country two 
hundred years ago would have been burned for the 
crime of heresy. The ministers who denounce me 
for expressing my thought would have been in the 
Inquisition themselves. Where once burned and 
blazed the bivouac fires of the army of progress, 
now glow the altars of the church. The religion- 
ists of our time are occupying about the same 
ground occupied by heretics and infidels of one 
hundred years ago. The church has advanced in 
spite, as it were, of itself. It has followed the 
army of progress protesting and denouncing, and 
had to keep within protesting and denouncing dis- 
tance. If the church had not made great progress 
I could not express my thoughts. 

Man, however, has advanced just exactly in the 
proportion with which he has mingled his thought 
with his labor. The sailor, without control of the 
wind and wave, knowing nothing or very little of 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 349 

the mysterious currents and pulses of the sea, is 
superstitious. So also is the agriculturist, whose 
prosperity depends upon something he cannot con- 
trol. But the mechanic, when a wheel refuses to 
turn, never thinks of dropping on his knees and 
asking the assistance of some divine power. He 
knows there is a reason. He knows that some- 
thing is too large or too small; that there is 
something wrong with his machine ; and he goes 
to work and he makes it larger or smaller, here or 
there, until the wheel will turn. Now, just in pro- 
portion as man gets away from being, as it were, 
the slave of his surroundings, the serf of the 
elements, — of the heat, the frost, the snow, and 
the lightning, — just to the extent that he has got- 
ten control of his own destiny, just to the extent 
that he has triumphed over the obstacles of nature, 
he has advanced physically and intellectually. As 
man develops, he places a greater value upon his 
own rights. Liberty becomes a grander and diviner 
thing. As he values his own rights, he begins to 
value the rights of others. And when all men 
give to all others all the rights they claim for them- 
selves, this world will be civilized. 

A few years ago the people were afraid to 



350 THE LIBERTY OF 

question the king, afraid to question the priest, 
afraid to investigate a creed, afraid to deny a book, 
afraid to denounce a dogma, afraid to reason, 
afraid to think. Before wealth they bowed to the 
very earth, and in the presence of titles they 
became abject. All this is slowly but surely 
changing. We no longer bow to men simply be- 
cause they are rich. Our fathers worshiped the 
golden calf. The worst you can say of an Amer- 
ican now is, he worships the gold of the calf. 
Even the calf is beginning to see this distinction. 
It no longer satisfies the ambition of a great 
man to be king or emperor. The last Napoleon 
was not satisfied with being the emperor of the 
French. He was not satisfied with having a circlet 
of gold about his head. He wanted some evidence 
that he had something of value within his head. 
So he wrote the life of Julius Caesar, that he might 
become a member of the French Academy. The 
emperors, the kings, the popes, no longer tower 
above their fellows. Compare King William with 
the philosopher Haeckel. The king is one of the 
anointed by the most high, as they claim — one 
upon whose head has been poured the divine 
petroleum of authority. Compare this king with 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 351 

Haeckel, who towers an intellectual colossus above 
the crowned mediocrity. Compare George Eliot 
with Queen Victoria. The Queen is clothed in 
garments given her by blind fortune and unreason- 
ing chance, while George Eliot wears robes of 
glory woven in the loom of her own genius. 

The world is beginning to pay homage to intel- 
lect, to genius, to heart. 

We have advanced. We have reaped the ben- 
efit of every sublime and heroic self-sacrifice, of 
every divine and brave act; and we should en- 
deavor to hand the torch to the next generation, 
having added a little to the intensity and glory of 
the flame. 

When I think of how much this world has suf- 
fered ; when I think of how long our fathers were 
slaves, of how they cringed and crawled at the foot 
of the throne, and in the dust of the altar, of how 
they abased themselves, of how abjectly they stood 
in the presence of superstition robed and crowned 3 
I am amazed. 

This world has not been fit for a man to live in 
fifty years. It was not until the year 1808 that 
Great Britain abolished the slave trade. Up to 
that time her judges, sitting upon the bench in the 



352 THE LIBERTY OF 

name of justice, her priests, occupying her pulpits, 
in the name of universal love, owned stock in the 
slave ships, and luxuriated upon the profits of 
piracy and murder. It was not until the same year 
that the United States of America abolished the 
slave trade between this and other countries, but 
carefully preserved it as between the States. It 
was not until the 28th day of August, 1833, that 
Great Britain abolished human slavery in her colo- 
nies; and it was not until the 1st day of January, 
1863, that Abraham Lincoln, sustained by the sub- 
lime and heroic North, rendered our flag pure as 
the sky in which it floats. 

Abraham Lincoln was, in my judgment, in many 
respects, the grandest man ever President of the 
United States. Upon his monument these words 
should be written: "Here sleeps the only man in 
the history of the world, who, having been clothed 
with almost absolute power, never abused it, except 
upon the side of mercy." 

Think how long we clung to the institution of 
human slavery, how long lashes upon the naked 
back were a legal tender for labor performed. 
Think of it. The pulpit of this country deliber- 
ately and willingly, for a hundred years, turned the 
cross of Christ into a whipping post. 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 353 

With every drop of my blood I hate and 
execrate every form of tyranny, every form of 
slavery. I hate dictation. I love liberty. 

What do I mean by liberty? By physical liberty 
I mean the right to do anything which does not 
interfere with the happiness of another. By intel- 
lectual liberty I mean the right to think right and 
the right to think wrong. Thought is the means 
by which we endeavor to arrive at truth. If we 
know the truth already, we need not think. All 
that can be required is honesty of purpose. You 
ask my opinion about anything; I examine it 
honestly, and when my mind is made up, what 
should I tell you? Should I tell you my real 
thought? What should I do? There is a book 
put in my hands. I am told this is the Koran ; it 
was written by inspiration. I read it, and when I 
get through, suppose that I think in my heart and 
in my brain, that it is utterly untrue, and you then 
ask me, what do you think? Now, admitting that 
I live in Turkey, and have no chance to get any 
office unless I am on the side of the Koran, 
what should I say? Should I make a clean breast 
and say, that upon my honor I do not believe 
it? What would you think then of my fellow- 



354 THE LIBERTY OF 

citizens if they said: "That man is dangerous, he 
<s dishonest." 

Suppose I read the book called the Bible, and 
when I get through I make up my mind that it was 
written by men. A minister asks me, " Did you 
read the Bible ? " I answer, that I did. " Do you 
think it divinely inspired ? " What should I reply ? 
Should I say to myself, " If I deny the inspiration 
of the Scriptures, the people will never clothe me 
with power." What ought I to answer? Ought I 
not to say like a man: "I have read it; I do not 
believe it." Should I not give the real transcript 
of my mind ? Or should I turn hypocrite and pre- 
tend what I do not feel, and hate myself forever 
after for being a cringing coward. For my part I 
would rather a man would tell me what he honestly 
thinks. I would rather he would preserve his man- 
hood. I had a thousand times rather be a manly 
unbeliever than an unmanly believer. And if there 
is a judgment day, a time when all will stand before 
some supreme being, I believe I will stand higher, 
and stand a better chance of getting my case de- 
cided in my favor, than any man sneaking through 
life pretending to believe what he does not. 

I have made up my mind to say my say. I 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 355 

shall do it kindly, distinctly ; but I am going to do 
it. I know there are thousands of men who sub- 
stantially agree with me, but who are not in a con- 
dition to express their thoughts. They are poor; 
they are in business ; and they know that should 
they tell their honest thought, persons will refuse 
to patronize them — to trade with them ; they wish 
to get bread for their little children ; they wish to 
take care of their wives ; they wish to have homes 
and the comforts of life. Every such person is a 
certificate of the meanness of the community in 
which he resides. And yet I do not blame these 
people for not expressing their thought. I say to 
them: " Keep your ideas to yourselves; feed and 
clothe the ones you love ; I will do your talking for 
you. The church can not touch, can not crush, 
can not starve, cannot stop or stay me ; I will ex- 
press your thoughts." 

As an excuse for tyranny, as a justification of 
slavery, the church has taught that man is totally 
depraved. Of the truth of that doctrine, the 
church has furnished the only evidence there is. 
The truth is, we are both good and bad. The 
worst are capable of some good deeds, and the 



356 THE LIBERTY OF 

best are capable of bad. The lowest can rise, and 
the highest may fall. That mankind can be divided 
into two great classes, sinners and saints, is an 
utter falsehood. In times of great disaster, called 
it may be, by the despairing voices of women, men, 
denounced by the church as totally depraved, rush 
to death as to a festival. By such men, deeds 
are done so filled with self-sacrifice and generous 
daring, that millions pay to them the tribute, not 
only of admiration, but of tears. Above all creeds, 
above all religions, after all, is that divine thing, — 
Humanity ; and now and then in shipwreck on the 
wide, wild sea, or 'mid the rocks and breakers of 
some cruel shore, or where the serpents of flame 
writhe and hiss, some glorious heart, some chivalric 
soul does a deed that glitters like a star, and gives 
the lie to all the dogmas of superstition. All these 
frightful doctrines have been used to degrade and 
to enslave mankind. 

Away, forever away with the creeds and books 
and forms and laws and religions that take from 
the soul liberty and reason. Down with the idea 
that thought is dangerous ! Perish the infamous 
doctrine that man can have property in man. Let 
us resent with indignation every effort to put a 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 357 

chain upon our minds. If there is no God, cer- 
tainly we should not bow and cringe and crawl. If 
there is a God, there should be no slaves. 

LIBERTY OF WOMAN. 

Women have been the slaves of slaves ; and in 
my judgment it took millions of ages for woman to 
come from the condition of abject slavery up to the 
institution of marriage. Let me say right here, that 
I regard marriage as the holiest institution among 
men. Without the fireside there is no human ad- 
vancement ; without the family relation there is no 
life worth living. Every good government is made 
up of good families. The unit of good government 
is the family, and anything that tends to destroy 
the family is perfectly devilish and infamous. I be- 
lieve in marriage, and I hold in utter contempt the 
opinions of those long-haired men and short-haired 
women who denounce the institution of marriage. 

The grandest ambition that any man can possi- 
bly have, is to so live, and so improve himself in 
heart and brain, as to be worthy of the love of some 
splendid woman ; and the grandest ambition of any 
girl is to make herself worthy of the love and ado- 



358 THE LIBER TY OF 

ration of some magnificent man. That is my idea. 
There is no success in life without love and mar- 
riage. You had better be the emperor of one lov- 
ing and tender heart, and she the empress of yours, 
than to be king of the world. The man who has 
really won the love of one good woman in this 
world, I do not care if he dies in the ditch a beg- 
gar, his life has been a success. 

I say it took millions of years to come from the 
condition of abject slavery up to the condition of 
marriage. Ladies, the ornaments you wear upon 
your persons to-night are but the souvenirs of your 
mother's bondage. The chains around your necks, 
and the bracelets clasped upon your white arms by 
the thrilled hand of love, have been changed by 
the wand of civilization from iron to shining, glit- 
tering gold. 

But nearly every religion has accounted for all 
the devilment in this world by the crime of woman. 
What a gallant thing that is! And if it is. true, I 
had rather live with the woman I love in a world 
full of trouble, than to live in heaven with nobody 
but men. 

I read in a book— and I will say now that I 
cannot give the exact language, as my memory does 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 359 

not retain the words, but I can give the substance 
— I read in a book that the Supreme Being con- 
cluded to make a world and one man ; that he took 
some nothing and made a world and one man, and 
put this man in a garden. In a little while he 
noticed that the man got lonesome ; that he wan- 
dered around as if he was waiting for a train. 
There was nothing to interest him; no news; no 
papers; no politics; no policy; and, as the devil 
had not yet made his appearance, there was no 
chance for reconciliation ; not even for civil service 
reform. Well, he wandered about the garden in 
this condition, until finally the Supreme Being made 
up his mind to make him a companion. 

Having used up all the nothing he originally 
took in making the world and one man, he had to 
take a part of the man to start a woman with. So 
he caused a sleep to fall on this man — now under- 
stand me, I do not say this story is true. After 
the sleep fell upon this man, the Supreme Being 
took a rib, or as the French would call it, a cutlet, 
out of this man, and from that he made a woman. 
And considering the amount of raw material used, 
I look upon it as the most successful job ever per- 
formed. Well, after he got the woman done, she 



360 THE LIBERTY OF 

was brought to the man ; not to see how she liked 
him, but to see how he liked her. He liked her, 
and they started housekeeping ; and they were told 
of certain things they might do and of one thing 
they could not do — and of course they did it. I 
would have done it in fifteen minutes, and I know 
it. There wouldn't have been an apple on that 
tree half an hour from date, and the limbs would 
have been full of clubs. And then they were 
turned out of the park and extra policemen were 
put on to keep them from getting back. 

Devilment commenced. The mumps, and the 
measles, and the whooping-cough, and the scarlet 
fever started in their race for man. They began to 
have the toothache, roses began to have thorns, 
snakes began to have poisoned teeth, and people 
began to divide about religion and politics, and the 
world has been full of trouble from that day to this. 

Nearly all of the religions of this world account 
for the existence of evil by such a story as that ! 

I read in another book what appeared to be an 
account of the same transaction. It was written 
about four thousand years before the other. All 
commentators agree that the one that was written 
last was the original, and that the one that was 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 3^i 

written first was copied from the one that was 
written last. But I would advise you all not to 
allow your creed to be disturbed by a little matter 
of four or five thousand years. In this other story, 
Brahma made up his mind to make the world and a 
man and woman. He made the world, and he 
made the man and then the woman, and put them 
on the island of Ceylon. According to the account 
it was the most beautiful island of which man can 
conceive. Such birds, such songs, such flowers and 
such verdure ! And the branches of the trees were 
so arranged that when the wind swept through 
them every tree was a thousand ^olian harps. 

Brahma, when he put them there, said: "Let 
them have a period of courtship, for it is my desire 
and will that true love should forever precede 
marriage.' ' When I read that, it was so much 
more beautiful and lofty than the other, that I said 
to myself, "If either one of these stories ever turns 
out to be true, I hope it will be this one." 

Then they had their courtship, with the nightin^ 
gale singing, and the stars shining, and the flowers 
blooming, and they fell in love. Imagine that 
courtship! No prospective fathers or mothers-in- 
law ; no prying and gossiping neighbors ; nobody 



362 THE LIBERTY OF 

to say, "Young man, how do you expect to support 
her?" Nothing of that kind. They were married 
by the Supreme Brahma, and he said to them : 
"Remain here; you must never leave this island.' ' 
Well, after a little while the man — and his name 
was Adami, and the woman's name was Heva — 
said to Heva: "I believe I'll look about a little." 
He went to the northern extremity of the island 
where there was a little narrow neck of land con- 
necting it with the mainland, and the devil, who is 
always playing pranks with us, produced a mirage, 
and when he looked over to the mainland, such 
hills and vales, such dells and dales, such mountains 
crowned with snow, such cataracts clad in bows of 
glory did he see there, that he went back and told 
Heva: "The country over there is a thousand 
times better than this ; let us migrate." She, like 
every other woman that ever lived, said: " Let well 
enough alone; we have all we want; let us stay 
here." But he said "No, let us go;" so she fol- 
lowed him, and when they came to this narrow 
neck of land, he took her on his back like a gen- 
tleman, and carried her over. But the moment 
they got over they heard a crash, and looking back, 
discovered that this narrow neck of land had fallen 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 363 

into the sea. The mirage had disappeared, and 
there were naught but rocks and sand; and then 
the Supreme Brahma cursed them both to the 
lowest hell. 

Then it was that the man spoke, — and I have 
liked him ever since for it — "Curse me, but curse 
not her, it was not her fault, it was mine/' 

That's the kind of man to start a world with. 

The Supreme Brahma said: "I will save her, 
but not thee." And then she spoke out of her 
fullness of love, out of a heart in which there was 
love enough to make all her daughters rich in holy 
affection, and said: " If thou wilt not spare him, 
spare neither me; I do not wish to live without 
him; I love him." Then the Supreme Brahma 
said — and I have liked him ever since I read it — 
" I will spare you both and watch over you and 
your children forever." 

Honor bright, is not that the better and grander 
story? 

And from that same book I want to show you 
what ideas some of these miserable heathen had; 
the heathen we are trying to convert. We send 
missionaries over yonder to convert heathen there, 
and we send soldiers out on the plains to kill 



364 THE LIBERTY OF 

heathen here. If we can convert the heathen, why 
not convert those nearest home ? Why not convert 
those we can get at ? Why not convert those who 
have the immense advantage of the example of 
the average pioneer ? But to show you the men 
we are trying to convert : In this book it says : 
" Man is strength, woman is beauty ; man is cour- 
age, woman is love. When the one man loves the 
one woman and the one woman loves the one man, 
the very angels leave heaven and come and sit in 
that house and sing for joy." 

They are the men we are converting. Think 
of it! I tell you, when I read these things, I say 
that love is not of any country ; nobility does not 
belong exclusively to any race, and through all the 
ages, there have been a few great and tender souls 
blossoming in love and pity. 

In my judgment, the woman is the equal of the 
man. She has all the rights I have and one more, 
and that is the right to be protected. That is my 
doctrine. You are married ; try and make the 
woman you love happy. Whoever marries simply 
for himself will make a mistake ; but whoever loves 
a woman so well that he says " I will make her 
happy," makes no mistake. And so with the 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 365 

woman who says, " I will make him happy." There 
is only one way to be happy, and that is to make 
somebody else so, and you cannot be happy by 
going cross lots ; you have got to go the regular 
turnpike road. 

If there is any man I detest, it is the man who 
thinks he is the head of a family — the man who 
thinks he is " boss ! " The fellow in the dug-out 
used that word " boss ; " that was one of his favorite 
expressions. 

Imagine a young man and a young woman 
courting, walking out in the moonlight, and the 
nightingale singing a song of pain and love, as 
though the thorn touched her heart — imagine them 
stopping there in the moonlight and starlight and 
song, and saying, " Now, here, let us settle who is 
1 boss V I tell you it is an infamous word and an 
infamous feeling — I abhor a man who is " boss," 
who is going to govern in his family, and when he 
speaks orders all the rest to be still as some mighty 
idea is about to be launched from his mouth. Do 
you know I dislike this man unspeakably ? 

I hate above all things a cross man. What 
right has he to murder the sunshine of a day ? 
What right has he to assassinate the joy of life ? 



366 THE LIBERTY OF 

When you go home you ought to go like a ray of 
light — so that it will, even in the night, burst out 
of the doors and windows and illuminate the 
darkness. Some men think their mighty brains 
have been in a turmoil ; they have been thinking 
about who will be alderman from the fifth ward; 
they have been thinking about politics ; great and 
mighty questions have been engaging their minds ; 
they have bought calico at fivG cents or six, and 
want to sell it for seven. Think of the intellectual 
strain that must have been upon that man, and 
when he gets home everybody else in the house 
must look out for his comfort. A woman who has 
only taken care of five or six children, and one or 
two of them sick, has been nursing them and 
singing to them, and trying to make one yard of 
cloth do the work of two, she, of course, is fresh 
and fine and ready to wait upon this gentleman — 
the head of the family — the boss! 

Do you know another thing? I despise a 
stingy man. I do not see how it is possible for a 
man to die worth fifty million of dollars, or ten 
million of dollars, in a city full of want, when he 
meets almost every day the withered hand of 
beggary and the white lips of famine. How a 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 367 

man can withstand all that, and hold in the clutch 
of his greed twenty or thirty million of dollars, is 
past my comprehension. I do not see how he can 
do it. I should not think he could do it any more 
than he could keep a pile of lumber on the beach, 
where hundreds and thousands of men were 
drowning in the sea. 

Do you know that I have known men who 
would trust their wives with their hearts and their 
honor but not with their pocketbook; not with a 
dollar. When I see a man of that kind, I always 
think he knows which of these articles is the most 
valuable. Think of making your wife a beggar! 
Think of her having to ask you every day for a 
dollar, or for two dollars or fifty cents! " What 
did you do with that dollar I gave you last week?" 
Think of having a wife that is afraid of you! 
What kind of children do you expect to have with 
a beggar and a coward for their mother? Oh, I 
tell you if you have but a dollar in the world, and 
you have got to spend it, spend it like a king; 
spend it as though it were a dry leaf and you the 
owner of unbounded forests ! That 's the way to 
spend it ! I had rather be a beggar and spend my 
last dollar like a king, than be a king and spend 



368 THE LIBERTY OF 

my money like a beggar ! If it has got to go, let 
it go! 

Get the best you can for your family — try to 
look as well as you can yourself. When you used 
to go courting, how elegantly you looked! Ah, 
your eye was bright, your step was light, and you 
looked like a prince. Do you know that it is 
insufferable egotism in you to suppose a woman is 
going to love you always looking as slovenly as 
you can ! Think of it ! Any good woman on 
earth will be true to you forever when you do your 
level best. 

Some people tell me, " Your doctrine about 
loving, and wives, and all that, is splendid for the 
rich, but it won't do for the poor." I tell you 
to-night there is more love in the homes of the 
poor than in the palaces of the rich. The meanest 
hut with love in it is a palace fit for the gods, and 
a palace without love is a den only fit for wild 
beasts. That is my doctrine ! You cannot be so 
poor that you cannot help somebody. Good 
nature is the cheapest commodity in the world ; 
and love is the only thing that will pay ten per 
cent, to borrower and lender both. Do not tell me 
that you have got to be rich ! We have a false 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 3^9 

standard of greatness in the United States. We 
think here that a man must be great, that he must 
be notorious; that he must be extremely wealthy, 
or that his name must be upon the putrid lips 
of rumor. It is all a mistake. It is not necessary 
to be rich or to be great, or to be powerful, to be 
happy. The happy man is the successful man. 

Happiness is the legal tender of the soul. 

Joy is wealth. 

A little while ago, I stood by the grave of the 
old Napoleon — a magnificent tomb of gilt and 
gold, fit almost for a dead deity — and gazed upon 
the sarcophagus of rare and nameless marble, where 
rest at last the ashes of that restless man. I 
leaned over the balustrade and thought about the 
career of the greatest soldier of the modern world. 

I saw him walking upon the banks of the Seine, 
contemplating suicide. I saw him at Toulon — I 
saw him putting down the mob in the streets of 
Paris — I saw him at the head of the army of Italy 
— I saw him crossing the bridge of Lodi with 
the tri-color in his hand — I saw him in Egypt in 
the shadows of the pyramids — I saw him conquer 
the Alps and mingle the eagles of France with the 
eagles of the crags. I saw him at Marengo — at 



37o THE LIBERTY OF 

Ulm and Austerlitz. I saw him in Russia, where 
the infantry of the snow and the cavalry of the wild 
blast scattered his legions like winter's withered 
leaves. I saw him at Leipsic in defeat and disaster 
— driven by a million bayonets back upon Paris— 
clutched like a wild beast — banished to Elba. I 
saw him escape and retake an empire by the force 
of his genius. I saw him upon the frightful field of 
Waterloo, where Chance and Fate combined to 
wreck the fortunes of their former king. And I 
saw him at St. Helena, with his hands crossed 
behind him, gazing out upon the sad and solemn 
sea. 

I thought of the orphans and widows he had 
made — of the tears that had been shed for his 
glory, and of the only woman who ever loved him, 
pushed from his heart by the cold hand of 
ambition. And I said I would rather have been a 
French peasant and worn wooden shoes. I would 
rather have lived in a hut with a vine growing over 
the door, and the grapes growing purple in the 
kisses of the autumn sun. I would rather have 
been that poor peasant with my loving wife by my 
side, knitting as the day died out of the sky — with 
my children upon my knees and their arms about 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 371 

me — I would rather have been that man and gone 

down to the tongueless silence of the dreamless 

dust, than to have been that imperial impersonation 
of force and murder, known as "Napoleon the Great." 

It is not necessary to be great to be happy ; it 
is not necessary to be rich to be just and generous 
and to have a heart filled with divine affection. 
No matter whether you are rich or poor, treat your 
wife as though she were a splendid flower, and she 
will fill your life with perfume and with joy. 

And do you know, it is a splendid thing to 
think that the woman you really love will never 
grow old to you. Through the wrinkles of time, 
through the mask of years, if you really love her, 
you will always see the face you loved and won. 
And a woman who really loves a man does not see 
that he grows old; he is not decrepit to her; he 
does not tremble; he is not old; she always sees 
the same gallant gentleman who won her hand and 
heart. I like to think of it in that way ; I like to 
think that love is eternal. And to love in that way 
and then go down the hill of life together, and as 
you go down, hear, perhaps, the laughter of 
grandchildren, while the birds of joy and love sing 
once more in the leafless branches of the tree 
of age. 



372 THE LIBERTY OF 

I believe in the fireside. I believe in the 
democracy of home. I believe in the republicanism 
of the family. I believe in liberty, equality and 
love. 

THE LIBERTY OF CHILDREN. 

If women have been slaves, what shall I say of 
children ; of the little children in alleys and 
sub-cellars ; the little children who turn pale when 
they hear their fathers' footsteps ; little children who 
run away when they only hear their names called 
by the lips of a mother; little children — the 
children of poverty, the children of crime, the 
children of brutality, wherever they are — flotsam 
and jetsam upon the wild, mad sea of life — my 
heart goes out to them, one and all. 

I tell you the children have the same rights that 
we have, and we ought to treat them as though 
they were human beings. They should be reared 
with love, with kindness, with tenderness, and not 
with brutality. That is my idea of children. 

When your little child tells a lie, do not rush at 
him as though the world were about to go into 
bankruptcy. Be honest with him. A tyrant father 
will have liars for his children ; do you know that ? 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD, 373 

A lie is born of tyranny upon the one hand and 
weakness upon the other, and when you rush at a 
poor little boy with a club in your hand, of course 
he lies. 

I thank thee, Mother Nature, that thou hast put 
ingenuity enough in the brain of a child, when 
attacked by a brutal parent, to throw up a little 
breastwork in the shape of a lie. 

When one of your children tells a lie, be honest 
with him ; tell him that you have told hundreds of 
them yourself. Tell him it is not the best way; 
that you have tried it. Tell him as the man did in 
Maine when his boy left home: "John, honesty is 
the best policy; I have tried both." Be honest 
with him. Suppose a man as much larger than you 
as you are larger than a child five years old, should 
come at you with a liberty pole in his hand, and in 
a voice of thunder shout, "Who broke that plate?" 
There is not a solitary one of you who would not 
swear you never saw it, or that it was cracked 
when you got it. Why not be honest with these 
children ? Just imagine a man who deals in stocks 
whipping his boy for putting false rumors afloat ! 
Think of a lawyer beating his own flesh and blood 
ibr evading the truth when he makes half of his 



374 THE LIBERTY OF 

own living that way ! Think of a minister 
punishing his child for not telling all he thinks ! 
Just think of it! 

When your child commits a wrong, take it in 
your arms ; let it feel your heart beat against its 
heart ; let the child know that you really and truly 
and sincerely love it. Yet some Christians, good 
Christians, when a child commits a fault, drive it 
from the door and say: " Never do you darken this 
house again." Think of that! And then these 
same people will get down on their knees and ask 
God to take care of the child they have driven 
from home. I will never ask God to take care of 
my children unless I am doing my level best in that 
same direction. 

But I will tell you what I say to my children : 
" Go where you will ; commit what crime you may ; 
fall to what depth of degradation you may ; you 
can never commit any crime that will shut my door, 
my arms, or my heart to you. As long as I live 
you shall have one sincere friend." 

Do you know that I have seen some people 
who acted as though they thought that when the 
Savior said " Suffer little children to come unto me, 
for of such is the kingdom of heaven/' he had a 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 375 

raw-hide under his mantle, and made that remark 
simply to get the children within striking distance ? 

I do not believe in the government of the lash. 
If any one of you ever expects to whip your chil- 
dren again, I want you to have a photograph taken 
of yourself when you are in the act, with your face 
red with vulgar anger, and the face of the little 
child, with eyes swimming in tears and the little 
chin dimpled with fear, like a piece of water struck 
by a sudden cold wind. Have the picture taken. 
If that little child should die, I cannot think of a 
sweeter way to spend an autumn afternoon than to 
go out to the cemetery, when the maples are clad 
in tender gold, and little scarlet runners are coming, 
like poems of regret, from the sad heart of the 
earth — and sit down upon the grave and look at 
that photograph, and think of the flesh now dust 
that you beat. I tell you it is wrong ; it is no way 
to raise children! Make your home happy. Be 
honest with them. Divide fairly with them in 
everything. 

Give them a little liberty and love, and you can 
not drive them out of your house. They will want 
to stay there. Make home pleasant. Let them 
play any game they wish. Do not be so foolish as 



376 THE LIBERTY OF 

to say : " You may roll balls on the ground, but you 
must not roll them on a green clothe You may 
knock them with a mallet, but you must not push 
them with a cue. You may play with little pieces 
of paper which have ' authors ' written on them, but 
you must not have 'cards." Think of it! "You 
may go to a minstrel show where people blacken 
themselves and imitate humanity below them, but 
you must not go to a theatre and see the characters 
created by immortal genius put upon the stage." 
Why? Well, I can't think of any reason in the 
world except " minstrel " is a word of two syllables, 
and " theatre " has three. 

Let children have some daylight at home if you 
want to keep them there, and do not commence at 
the cradle and shout " Don't ! " " Don't ! " " Stop ! " 
That is nearly all that is said to a child from 
the cradle until he is twenty-one years old, and 
when he comes of age other people begin saying 
"Don't!" And the church says "Don't!" and 
the party he belongs to says " Don't ! " 

I despise that way of going through this world. 
Let us have liberty — just a little. Call me infidel, 
call me atheist, call me what you will, I intend so to 
treat my children, that they can come to my grave 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD 377 

and truthfully say : " He who sleeps here never 
gave us a moment of pain. From his lips, now 
dust, never came to us an unkind word." 

People justify all kinds of tyranny toward 
children upon the ground that they are totally 
depraved. At the bottom of ages of cruelty lies 
this infamous doctrine of total depravity. Religion 
contemplates a child as a living crime — heir to an 
infinite curse — doomed to eternal fire. 

In the olden time, they thought some days were 
too good for a child to enjoy himself. When I was 
a boy Sunday was considered altogether too holy 
to be happy in. Sunday used to commence then 
when the sun went down on Saturday night. We 
commenced at that time for the purpose of getting 
a good ready, and when the sun fell below the 
horizon on Saturday evening, there was a darkness 
fell upon the house ten thousand times deeper 
than that ol night. Nobody said a pleasant word ; 
nobody laughed ; nobody smiled ; the child that 
looked the sickest was regarded as the most pious. 
That night you could not even crack hickory nutSo 
If you were caught chewing gum it was only 
another evidence of the total depravity of the 
human heart It was an exceedingly solemn night. 



378 THE LIBERTY OF 

Dyspepsia was in the very air you breathed. 
Everybody looked sad and mournful. I have 
noticed all my life that many people think they 
have religion when they are troubled with dys- 
pepsia. If there could be found an absolute 
specific for that disease, it would be the hardest 
blow the church has ever received. 

On Sunday morning the solemnity had simply 
increased. Then we went to church. The 
minister was in a pulpit about twenty feet high, 
with a little sounding-board above him, and he 
commenced at " firstly" and went on and on and 
on to about "twenty-thirdly." Then he made a 
few remarks by way of application ; and then took 
a general view of the subject, and in about two 
hours reached the last chapter in Revelation. 

In those days, no matter how cold the weather 
was, there was no fire in the church. It was 
thought to be a kind of sin to be comfortable while 
you were thanking God. The first church that 
ever had a stove in it in New England, divided on 
that account. So the first church in which they 
sang by note, was torn in fragments. 

After the sermon we had an intermission. 
Then came the catechism with the chief end of 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 379 

man. We went through with that. We sat in a 
row with our feet coming in about six inches of the 
floor. The minister asked us if we knew that we 
all deserved to go to hell, and we all answered 
" Yes." Then we were asked if we would be will- 
ing to go to hell if it was God's will, and every little 
liar shouted " Yes." Then the same sermon was 
preached once more, commencing at the other end 
and going back. After that, we started for home, 
sad and solemn — overpowered with the wisdom 
displayed in the scheme of the atonement. When 
we got home, if we had been good boys, and the 
weather was warm, sometimes they would take us 
out to the graveyard to cheer us up a little. It did 
cheer me. When I looked at the sunken tombs 
and the leaning stones, and read the half-effaced 
inscriptions through the moss of silence and forget- 
fulness, it was a great comfort. The reflection 
came to my mind that the observance of the Sab- 
bath could not last always. Sometimes they would 
sing that beautiful hymn in which occurs these 
cheerful lines: 

6 ' Where congregations ne'er break up, 
And Sabbaths never end." 

These lines, I think, prejudiced me a little 



3§o THE LIBERTY OF 

against even heaven. Then we had good books 
that we read on Sundays by way of keeping us 
happy and contented. There were Milners' 
"History of the Waldenses, ,, Baxter's "Call to the 
Unconverted," Yahn's "Archaeology of the Jews," 
and Jenkyns' " On the Atonement." I used to read 
Jenkyns' "On the Atonement." I have often 
thought that an atonement would have to be 
exceedingly broad in its provisions to cover the 
case of a man who would write a book like that 
for a boy. 

But at last the Sunday wore away, and the 
moment the sun went down we were free. Be- 
tween three and four o'clock we would go out to 
see how the sun was coming on. Sometimes it 
seemed to me that it was stopping from pure 
meanness. But finally it went down. It had to. 
And when the last rim of light sank below the 
horizon, off would go our caps, and we would give 
three cheers for liberty once more. 

Sabbaths used to be prisons. Every Sunday 
was a Bastile. Every Christian was a kind of turn- 
key, and every child was a prisoner, — a convict 
In that dungeon, a smile was a crime. 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 381 

It was thought wrong for a child to laugh upon 
this holy day. Think of that ! 

A little child would go out into the garden, and 
there would be a tree laden with blossoms, and the 
little fellow would lean against it, and there would 
be a bird on one of the boughs, singing and swing- 
ing, and thinking about four little speckled eggs, 
warmed by the breast of its mate, — singing and 
swinging, and the music in happy waves rippling 
out of its tiny throat, and the flowers blossoming, 
the air filled with perfume and the great white 
clouds floating in the sky, and the little boy would 
lean up against that tree and think about hell and 
the worm that never dies. 

I have heard them preach, when I sat in the 
pew and my feet did not touch the floor, about the 
final home of the unconverted. In order to impress 
upon the children the length of time they would 
probably stay if they settled in that country, the 
preacher would frequently give us the following 
illustration: "Suppose that once in a billion years 
a bird should come from some far-distant planet, 
and carry off in its little bill a grain of sand, a time 
would finally come when the last atom composing 
this earth would be carried away; and when this 



382 THE LIBERTY OF 

last atom was taken, it would not even be sun 
up in hell." Think of such an infamous doctrine 
being taught to children ! 

The laugh of a child will make the holiest day 
more sacred still. Strike with hand of fire, O 
weird musician, thy harp strung with Apollo's 
golden hair; fill the vast cathedral aisles with 
symphonies sweet and dim, deft toucher of the 
organ keys; blow, bugler, blow, until thy silver 
notes do touch and kiss the moonlit waves, and 
charm the lovers wandering 'mid the vine-clad hills. 
But know, your sweetest strains are discords all, 
compared with childhood's happy laugh — the laugh 
that fills the eyes with light and every heart with 
joy. O rippling river of laughter, thou art the 
blessed boundary line between the beasts and men ; 
and every wayward wave of thine doth drown some 
fretful fiend of care. O Laughter, rose-lipped 
daughter of Joy, there are dimples enough in thy 
cheeks to catch and hold and glorify all the tears 
of grief, 

And yet the minds of children have been 
polluted by this infamous doctrine of eternal 
punishment. I denounce it to-day as a doctrine, 
the infamy of which no language is sufficient to 
express. 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 383 

Where did that doctrine of eternal punishment 
for men and women and children come from ? It 
came from the low and beastly skull of that wretch 
in the dug-out. Where did he get it ? It was a 
souvenir from the animals. The doctrine of eternal 
punishment was born in the glittering eyes of 
snakes — snakes that hung in fearful coils watching 
for their prey. It was born of the howl and bark 
and growl of wild beasts. It was born of the grin 
of hyenas and of the depraved chatter of unclean 
baboons. I despise it with every drop of my 
blood. Tell me there is a God in the serene 
heavens that will damn his children for the 
expression of an honest belief! More men have 
died in their sins, judged by your orthodox creeds, 
than there are leaves on all the forests in the wide 
world ten thousand times over. Tell me these men 
are in hell; that these men are in torment; that 
these children are in eternal pain, and that they 
are to be punished forever and forever ! I denounce 
this doctrine as the most infamous of lies. 

When the great ship containing the hopes and 
aspirations of the world, when the great ship 
freighted with mankind goes down in the night of 
death, chaos and disaster, I am willing to go 



384 THE LIBERTY OF 

down with the ship. I will not be guilty of the 
ineffable meanness of paddling away in some or- 
thodox canoe. I will go down with the ship, with 
those who love me, and with those whom I have 
loved. If there is a God who will damn his 
children forever, I would rather go to hell than to 
go to heaven and keep the society of such an in- 
famous tyrant. I make my choice now. I despise 
that doctrine. It has covered the cheeks of this 
world with tears. It has polluted the hearts of 
children, and poisoned the imaginations of men. It 
has been a constant pain, a perpetual terror to 
every good man and woman and child. It has 
filled the good with horror and with fear; but it has 
had no effect upon the infamous and base. It has 
wrung the hearts of the tender ; it has furrowed the 
cheeks of the good. This doctrine never should 
be preached again. What right have you, sir, Mr. 
clergyman, you, minister of the gospel, to stand at 
the portals of the tomb, at the vestibule of eternity, 
and fill the future with horror and with fear? I do 
not believe this doctrine: neither do you. If you 
did, you could not sleep one moment. Any man 
who believes it, and has within his breast a decent, 
throbbing heart, will go insane. A man who 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 385 

believes that doctrine and does not go insane has 
the heart of a snake and the conscience of a 
hyena. 

Jonathan Edwards, the dear old soul, who, if 
his doctrine is true, is now in heaven rubbing his 
holy hands with glee, as he hears the cries of the 
damned, preached this doctrine; and he said: 
"Can the believing husband in heaven be happy 
with his unbelieving wife in hell? Can the 
believing father in heaven be happy with his 
unbelieving children in hell? Can the loving wife 
in heaven be happy with her unbelieving husband 
in hell ? " And he replies: "I tell you, yea. Such 
will be their sense of justice, that it will increase 
rather than diminish their bliss." There is no wild 
beast in the jungles of Africa whose reputation 
would not be tarnished by the expression of such a 
doctrine. 

These doctrines have been taught in the name 
of religion, in the name of universal forgiveness, in 
the name of infinite love and charity. Do not, I 
pray you, soil the minds of your children with this 
dogma. Let them read for themselves ; let them 
think for themselves. 

Do not treat your children like orthodox posts 



386 THE LIBERTY OF 

to be set in a row. Treat them like trees that need 
light and sun and air. Be fair and honest with 
them; give them a chance. Recollect that their 
rights are equal to yours. Do not have it in your 
mind that you must govern them ; that they must 
obey. Throw away forever the idea of master and 
slave. 

In old times they used to make the children go 
to bed when they were not sleepy, and get up when 
they were sleepy. I say let them go to bed when 
they are sleepy, and get up when they are not 
sleepy. 

But you say, this doctrine will do for the rich 
but not for the poor. Well, if the poor have to 
waken their children early in the morning it is as 
easy to wake them with a kiss as with a blow. 
Give your children freedom; let them preserve 
their individuality. Let your children eat what 
they desire, and commence at the end of a dinner 
they like. That is their business and not yours. 
They know what they wish to eat. If they are 
given their liberty from the first, they know what 
they want better than any doctor in the world can 
prescribe. Do you know that all the improvement 
that has ever been made in the practice of medicine 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 387 

has been made by the recklessness of patients and 
not by the doctors ? For thousands and thousands 
of years the doctors would not let a man suffering 
from fever have a drop of water. Water they 
looked upon as poison. But every now and then 
some man got reckless and said, "I had rather die 
than not to slake my thirst." Then he would drink 
two or three quarts of water and get well. And 
when the doctor was told of what the patient had 
done, he expressed great surprise that he was still 
alive, and complimented his constitution upon being 
able to bear such a frightful strain. The reckless 
men, however, kept on drinking the water, and 
persisted in getting well. And finally the doctors 
said: "In a fever, water is the very best thing you 
can take." So, I have more confidence in the 
voice of nature about such things than I have in 
the conclusions of the medical schools. 

Let your children have freedom and they will 
fall into your ways; they will do substantially as 
you do ; but if you try to make them, there is some 
magnificent, splendid thing in the human heart that 
refuses to be driven. And do you know that it is 
the luckiest thing that ever happened for this 
world, that people are that way. What would have 



3$8 THE LIBERTY OF 

become of the people five hundred years ago if 
they had followed strictly the advice of the 
doctors? They would have all been dead. What 
would the people have been, if at any age of the 
world they had followed implicitly the direction of 
the church? They would have all been idiots. It 
is a splendid thing that there is always some grand 
man who will not mind, and who will think for 
himself. 

I believe in allowing the children to think for 
themselves. I believe in the democracy of the 
family. If in this world there is anything splendid, 
it is a home where all are equals. 

You will remember that only a few years ago 
parents would tell their children to "let their 
victuals stop their mouths." They used to eat as 
though it were a religious ceremony — a very 
solemn thing. Life should not be treated as a 
solemn matter. I like to see the children at 
table, and hear each one telling of the wonderful 
things he has seen and heard. I like to hear the 
clatter of knives and forks and spoons mingling 
with their happy voices. I had rather hear it than 
any opera that was ever put upon the boards. Let 
the children have liberty. Be honest and fair with 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 389 

them; be just; be tender, and they will make you 
rich in love and joy. 

Men are oaks, women are vines, children are 
flowers. 

The human race has been guilty of almost 
countless crimes; but I have some excuse for 
mankind. This world, after all, is not very well 
adapted to raising good people. In the first place, 
nearly all of it is water. It is much better adapted 
to fish culture than to the production of folks. Of 
that portion which is land not one-eighth has 
suitable soil and climate to produce great men and 
women. You cannot raise men and women of 
genius, without the proper soil and climate, any 
more than you can raise corn and wheat upon the 
ice fields of the Arctic sea. You must have the 
necessary conditions and surroundings. Man is 
a product ; you must have the soil and food. The 
obstacles presented by nature must not be so 
great that man cannot, by reasonable industry and 
courage, overcome them. There is upon this world 
only a narrow belt of land, circling zigzag the 
globe, upon which you can produce men and 
women of talent. In the Southern Hemisphere 



390 THE LIBERTY OF 

the real climate that man needs falls mostly upon 
the sea, and the result is, that the southern half of 
our world has never produced a man or woman of 
great genius. In the far north there is no genius 
— it is too cold. In the far south there is no 
genius — it is too warm. There must be winter, 
and there must be summer. In a country where 
man needs no coverlet but a cloud, revolution is 
his normal condition. Winter is the mother of 
industry and prudence. Above all, it is the mother 
of the family relation. Winter holds in its icy arms 
the husband and wife and the sweet children. If 
upon this earth we ever have a glimpse of heaven, 
it is when we pass a home in winter, at night, and 
through the windows, the curtains drawn aside, we 
see the family about the pleasant hearth; the old 
lady knitting; the cat playing with the yarn; the 
children wishing they had as many dolls or dollars 
or knives or somethings, as there are sparks going 
out to join the roaring blast; the father reading 
and smoking, and the clouds rising like incense 
from the altar of domestic joy. I never passed 
such a house without feeling that I had received a 
benediction. 

Civilization, liberty, justice, charity, intellectual 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 391 

advancement, are all flowers that blossom in the 
drifted snow. 

I do not know that I can better illustrate the 
great truth that only part of the world is adapted 
to the production of great men and women than by 
calling your attention to the difference between 
vegetation in valleys and upon mountains. In the 
valley you find the oak and elm tossing their 
branches defiantly to the storm, and as you advance 
up the mountain side the hemlock, the pine, the 
birch, the spruce, the fir, and finally you come to 
little dwarfed trees, that look like other trees seen 
through a telescope reversed — every limb twisted 
as though in pain — getting a scanty subsistence 
from the miserly crevices of the rocks. You 
go on and on, until at last the highest crag is 
freckled with a kind of moss, and vegetation ends. 
You might as well try to raise oaks and elms where 
the mosses grow, as to raise great men and great 
women where their surroundings are unfavorable. 
You must have the proper climate and soil. 

A few years ago we were talking about the 
annexation of Santo Domingo to this country. I 
was in Washington at the time. I was opposed to 
it I was told that it was a most delicious climate ; 



392 THE LIBERTY OF 

that the soil produced everything. But I said: 
"We do not want it; it is not the right kind of 
country in which to raise American citizens. Such 
a climate would debauch us. You might go there 
with five thousand Congregational preachers, five 
thousand ruling elders, five thousand professors in 
colleges, five thousand of the solid men of Boston 
and their wives ; settle them all in Santo Domingo, 
and you will see the second generation riding upon 
a mule, bareback, no shoes, a grapevine bridle, hair 
sticking out at the top of their sombreros, with a 
rooster under each arm, going to a cock fight on 
Sunday." Such is the influence of climate. 

Science, however, is gradually widening the 
area within which men of genius can be produced. 
We are conquering the north with houses, clothing, 
food and fuel. We are in many ways overcoming 
the heat of the south. If we attend to this world 
instead of another, we may in time cover the land 
with men and women of genius. 

I have still another excuse. I believe that man 
came up from the lower animals. I do not say this 
as a fact. I simply say I believe it to be a fact. 
Upon that question I stand about eight to seven, 
which, for all practical purposes, is very near a 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 393 

certainty. When I first heard of that doctrine I 
did not like it. My heart was filled with sympathy 
for those people who have nothing to be proud 
of except ancestors. I thought, how terrible 
this will be upon the nobility of the Old World. 
Think of their being forced to trace their ancestry 
back to the duke Orang Outang, or to the princess 
Chimpanzee. After thinking it all over, I came to 
the conclusion that I liked that doctrine. I became 
convinced in spite of myself. I read about 
rudimentary bones and muscles. I was told that 
everybody had rudimentary muscles extending 
from the ear into the cheek. I asked " What are 
they?" I was told: "They are the remains of 
muscles ; that they became rudimentary from lack 
of use ; they went into bankruptcy c They are the 
muscles with which your ancestors used to flap 
their ears." I do not now so much wonder that 
we once had them as that we have outgrown them 
After all I had rather belong to a race that 
started from the skull-less vertebrates in the dim 
Laurentian seas, vertebrates wiggling without 
knowing why they wiggled, swimming without 
knowing where they were going, but that in some 
way began to develop, and began to get a little 



394 THE LIBERTY OF 

higher and a little higher in the scale of existence ; 
that came up by degrees through millions of ages 
through all the animal world, through all that crawls 
and swims and floats and climbs and walks, and 
finally produced the gentleman in the dug-out ; and 
then from this man, getting a little grander, and 
each one below calling every one above him a 
heretic, calling every one who had made a little 
advance an infidel or an atheist — for in the history 
of this world the man who is ahead has always 
been called a heretic — I would rather come from a 
race that started from that skull-less vertebrate, and 
came up and up and up and finally produced 
Shakespeare, the man who found the human intel- 
lect dwelling in a hut, touched it with the wand of 
his genius and it became a palace domed and 
pinnacled; Shakespeare, who harvested all the 
fields of dramatic thought, and from whose day to 
this, there have been only gleaners of straw and 
chaff — I would rather belong to that race that 
commenced a skull-less vertebrate and produced 
Shakespeare, a race that has before it an infinite 
future, with the angel of progress leaning from the 
far horizon, beckoning men forward, upward and 
onward forever — I had rather belong to such a 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 395 

race, commencing there, producing this, and with 
that hope, than to have sprung from a perfect pair 
upon which the Lord has lost money every moment 
from that day to this. 

CONCLUSION. 

I have given you my honest thought. Surely 
investigation is better than unthinking faith. 
Surely reason is a better guide than fear. This 
world should be controlled by the living, not by 
the dead. The grave is not a throne, and a 
corpse is not a king. Man should not try to live 
on ashes. 

The theologians dead, knew no more than the 
theologians now living. More than this cannot be 
said. About this world little is known, — about 
another world, nothing. 

Our fathers were intellectual serfs, and their 
fathers were slaves. The makers of our creeds 
were ignorant and brutal. Every dogma that we 
have, has upon it the mark of whip, the rust of 
chain, and the ashes of fagot. 

Our fathers reasoned with instruments of tor- 
ture. They believed in the logic of fire and sword. 
They hated reason. They despised thought. 
They abhorred liberty. 



396 THE LIBERTY OF 

Superstition is the child of slavery. Free 
thought will give us truth. When all have the 
right to think and to express their thoughts, 
every brain will give to all the best it has. The 
world will then be filled with intellectual wealth. 

As long as men and women are afraid of the 
church, as long as a minister inspires fear, as long 
as people reverence a thing simply because they 
do not understand it, as long as it is respectable 
to lose your self-respect, as long as the church 
has power, as long as mankind worship a book, 
just so long will the world be filled with intel- 
lectual paupers and vagrants, covered with the 
soiled and faded rags of superstition. 

As long as woman regards the Bible as the 
charter of her rights, she will be the slave of man. 
The Bible was not written by a woman. Within its 
lids there is nothing but humiliation and shame 
for her. She is regarded as the property of man. 
She is made to ask forgiveness for becoming a 
mother. She is as much below her husband, as 
her husband is below Christ. She is not allowed 
to speak. The gospel is too pure to be spoken by 
her polluted lips. Woman should learn in silence. 

In the Bible will be found no description of a 



MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD. 397 

civilized home. The free mother surrounded by 
free and loving children, adored by a free man, her 
husband, was unknown to the inspired writers of 
the Bible. They did not believe in the democracy 
of home — in the republicanism of the fireside. 

These inspired gentlemen knew nothing of the 
rights of children. They were the advocates ot 
brute force — the disciples of the lash. They knew 
nothing of human rights. Their doctrines have 
brutalized the homes of millions, and filled the 
eyes of infancy with tears. 

Let us free ourselves from the tyranny of a 
book, from the slavery of dead ignorance, from the 
aristocracy of the ain 

There has never been upon the earth a gener- 
ation of free men and women. It is not yet time 
to write a creed. Wait until the chains are broken 
— until dungeons are not regarded as temples. 
Wait until solemnity is not mistaken for wisdom — 
until mental cowardice ceases to be known as rev- 
erence c Wait until the living are considered the 
equals of the dead — until the cradle takes prece- 
dence of the coffin. Wait until what we know can 
be spoken without regard to what others may 
believe. Wait until teachers take the place of 



398 THE LIBERTY OF MAN, ETC. 

preachers — until followers become investigators. 
Wait until the world is free before you write a 
creed. 

In this creed there will be but one word— 
Liberty. 

Oh Liberty, float not forever in the far horizon 
— remain not forever in the dream of the enthu- 
siast, the philanthropist and poet, but come and 
make thy home among the children of men ! 

I know not what discoveries, what inventions, 
what thoughts may leap from the brain of the 
world. I know not what garments of glory may 
be woven by the years to come. I cannot dream 
of the victories to be won upon the fields of 
thought ; but I do know, that coming from the 
infinite sea of the future, there will never touch 
this "bank and shoal of time" a richer gift, a 
rarer blessing than liberty for man, for woman, and 
for child. 



«--£_ 




9^ 



A TRIBUTE 



TO 



Ebon c. ingersoll. 



BY HIS BROTHER 



Robert. 




Dec. 12, 1831. MAY 31, 1879. 

A Tribute to Ebon C. Ingersoll, 

By his Brother Robert. 



THE RECORD OF A GENEROUS LIFE RUNS LIKE A VINE 
AROUND THE MEMORY OF OUR DEAD, AND EVERY 
SWEET, UNSELFISH ACT IS NOW A PERFUMED FLOWER. 



Dear Friends : I am going to do that which 
the dead oft promised he would do for me. 

The loved and loving brother, husband, father, 
friend, died where manhood's morning almost 
touches noon, and while the shadows still were 
falling toward the west. 

He had not passed on life's highway the stone 
that marks the highest point ; but, being weary for 
a moment, he lay down by the wayside, and, using 
his burden for a pillow, fell into that dreamless sleep 



250 TRIBUTE TO EBON C. INGERSOLL. 

that kisses down his eyelids still. While yet in love 
with life and raptured with the world, he passed to 
silence and pathetic dust. 

Yet, after all, it may be best, just in the happiest, 
sunniest hour of all the voyage, while eager winds 
are kissing every sail, to dash against the unseen 
rock, and in an instant hear the billows roar above 
a sunken ship. For whether in mid sea or 'mong the 
breakers of the farther shore, a wreck at last must 
mark the end of each and all. And every life, no 
matter if its every hour is rich with love and every 
moment jeweled with a joy, will, at its close, become 
a tragedy as sad and deep and dark as can be 
woven of the warp and woof of mystery and death. 

This brave and tender man in every storm of life 
was oak and rock ; but in the sunshine he was vine 
and flower. He was the friend of all heroic souls. 
He climbed the heights, and left all superstitions far 
below, while on his forehead fell the golden dawning 
of the grander day. 

He loved the beautiful, and was with color, form, 
and music touched to tears. He sided with the 



TRIBUTE TO EBON C. INGERSOLL. 251 

weak, the poor, and wronged, and lovingly gave 
alms. With loyal heart and with the purest hands 
he iaithfully discharged all public trusts. 

He was a worshipper of liberty, a friend of the 
oppressed. A thousand times I have heard him 
quote these words : "For Justice all place a temple, 
and all season, summer!' He believed that happiness 
was the only good, reason the only torch, justice the 
only worship, humanity the only religion, and love 
the only priest. He added to the sum of human joy ; 
and were every one to whom he did some loving 
service to bring a blossom to his grave, he would 
sleep to-night beneath a wilderness of flowers. 

Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren 
peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look 
beyond the heights. We cry aloud, and the only 
answer is the echo of our wailing cry. From the 
voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no 
word ; but in the night of death hope sees a star and 
listening love can hear the rustle of a wing. 

He who sleeps here, when dying, mistaking the 
approach of death for the return of health, whispered 



262 TRIBUTE TO EBON C. INGERSOLL. 

with his latest breath, " I am better now." Let us 
believe, in spite of doubts and dogmas, of fears and 
tears, that these dear words are true of all the count- 
less dead. 

And now, to you, who have been chosen, from 
among the many men he loved, to do the last sad 
office for the dead, we give his sacred dust. 

Speech cannot contain our love. There was 
there is, no gentler, stronger, manlier man. 




Just Published 

ONLY AUTHORIZED EDITION 

In one volume, large octavo, large type, 
582 pages, price $230 net, postage 25c. 

All of Colonel Ingersoll's Political 

Speeches contained in Volume 

IX of the Dresden Edition 



* "When the sword is drawn, reason remains in the scabbard.' 



CONTENTS 

An Address to the Colored People — 1867. 

Indianapolis Speech, Grant Campaign — 1868. 

Speech Nominating: Blaine — 1876. 

Centennial Oration — July 4, 1876. 

Bangor Speech, Hayes Campaign — 1876. 

Cooper Union Speech, Hayes Campaign — 1876. 

Indianapolis Speech, Containing the Vision of War, Hayes 
Campaign— 1876. 

Chicago Speech, Hayes Campaign — 1876. 

Eight to Seven Addresses on the Electoral Commission — 

1877. 
Hard Times and the Way Out— 1878. 

Suffrage Address, Advocating the ballot for the men and 
women of the District of Columbia — 1880. 

Wall Street Speech, Garfield Campaign — 1880. 

Brooklyn Speech, Introduction by Henry Ward Beecher, 
Garfield Campaign — 1880. 

•Page 259. OVER 



Address to the 86th Illinois Regiment — 1865. 

Decoration Day Address, New York City — 1882. 

Decoration Day Oration, New York City — 188& 

Ratification Speech, Harrison and Morton Campaign — 
1888. 

Reunion Address to the nth Illinois Cavalry, of which 
Colonel Ingersoll was the Commanding Officer — 1895. 

The Chicago and New York Gold Speech — 1896. 

The voluminous and illuminating foot notes descrip- 
tive of the occasions upon which the different addresses 
were delivered are exceedingly valuable, bringing, as they 
do, those occasions vividly to the mind of the reader. 

" Colonel Ingersoll writes with a rare and enviable brilliancy." 

Wm. E. Gladstone. 

" Ingersoll was not only America's greatest orator. He was a 
great writer and a great thinker. His style is vigorous, as clear as it 
is graceful, as poetic as it is humorous, and as verve as inexhaustible." 

Max O'Rell. 

"Of orators of the first class we have not had many. Ingersoll 

was one of them. Perhaps he was our supreme orator. In humor, 

persuasiveness, grace, power, majesty, he was the equal of the best." 

Orlando J. Smith, President American Press Association. 

" I take the liberty of saying that I respect Ingersoll as the man 
who for a full score and more of years has worked for the right in the 
great, broad field of humanity, and for the sake of human rights, . . . 
The man who — and I say it not flatteringly — is the most brilliant 
speaker of the English tongue of all men on this globe. But as under 
the brilliancy of the blaze of light we find the living coals of fire, 
under the lambent flow of his wit and magnificent antithesis we find 
the glorious flame of genius and honest thought." 

Henry Ward Beecher. 

" Robert Ingersoll's was a great and beautiful spirit; he was a 
man — all man, from his crown to his foot soles. My reverence for 
him was deep and genuine. I prized his affection for me, and 
returned it with usury," 

Mark Twain. 

C. P. FARRELL 

117 East 21st Street, New York City, N. Y. 



a raw "snymon. .tost pv3Biiis«3LD \ 

% gbopt Bistort ©* tfie &ible: 

Being an account of the formation and development of the Canon , by 

BRONSON C. KEELER. 

Price, Cloth, 75 cents. Paper, 50 cents. Postage paid. 

This Book should be read by every Clergyman, Layman, Scholar and Liberal. 

Everybody knows that the contents of the Bible were voted upon by different 
councils of the church ; that books were included in the early centuries which 
are no longer regarded as a part of the sacred scriptures ; that many of the 
books now in the Bible were for centuries not a part of it ; and that bishops, and 
synods, and councils labored long to agree upon what books should be con 
sidered canonical and what should not be. But the general knowledge has been 
indefinite. Few people are aware, for example, that the book of Revelation 
was for 1500 years rejected by the Eastern branch of the Christian church, and 
was voted into the Bible by that branch at a council held in Jerusalem in 1672. 
The aim of Mr. Keeler's book is to go over this entire ground from the beginning 
of the Christian era to the present time, and to furnish all the facts concerning 
the formation and development of the Bible canon, giving briefly but succinctly 
the views of each bishop and the action of every council having any influence 
on the contents of the sacred volume. Mr. Keeler does not deal in opinions. He 
simply states facts, and gives a reference for each fact to the early Christian 
fathers and other recognized authorities ; and it is believed that his book 
throws much light on a hitherto obscured department of religious history. 

"I have read Mr. Keeler's book with great pleasure and profit. He gives, in 
my opinion, a clear and intelligent account of the growth of the bible. He 
shows why books were received as inspired, and why they were rejected. He 
does not deal in opinions, but in facts ; and for the correctness of his facts, he 
refers to the highest authorities. He has shown exactly who the Christian 
fathers were, and the weight that their evidence is entitled to. The first cen- 
turies of Christianity are filled with shadow ; most histories of that period 
simply tell us what did not happen, and even the statements of what did not 
happen are contradictory. The falsehoods do not agree. Mr. Keeler must have 
spent a great deal of time in the examination of a vast number of volumes, and 
the amount of information contained in his book could nut be collected in years. 
Every minister, every college professor, and every man who really wishes to 
know something about the origin and growth of the bible, should read thia 

book."— R. G. INGERSOLL. 

To C. P. Farrell, Esq.— Often have I wished that some writer, who had a 
learned head and a lucid pen, would give us a brief yet comprehensive account 
of the Books of the Bible — how we came by them — when the world first got 
them — and what were the qualities, characters and pretensions of those who 
Jmposed them upon credulous and superstitious believers. Often have I 
it.if su ch a hook were written, some publisher, having the ear of the 
' b would issue it. Great was my surprise and pleasure when 
mjson Keeler's " Short History of the Bibte" we have, 
'^suppressed Scriptures — all Christian, all curi- 
riser, all equally authentic, and all believed 
u "" "getter means of judging them than we 
"^ '[ink they ought to be — and all who 
easterly and wise book.— George 

|jew occupying four and one- 

^^"^ writings were admitted 

" r and effectively set 

^'\le,' by Bronson C. 

itenais from the 

HLo f Christian his- 

jstian fathers 

works, 09 

Wescott, 

L by ih» 

iiier«d 






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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



Eighth e<o 021 898 585 3 

Prose-Poems and Seiecmras, 

By ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 

Revised and greatly Enlarged. A Handsome 8vo. containing 427 pages. 

THIS is, beyond question, the most elegant volume in Liberal literature. No expense 
has been spared to make it the thing of beauty that it is. The type is large and clear, 
the paper genuine water-marked Spartan, all-rag featherweight, pure white, deckle 
■edge, the piesswork is faultless, and the binding as perfect as the best materials and skill 
can make it. The book is in every way an artistic triumph. 

As to the contents, it is enough to say that they include jome of the very choicest utter- 
ances of the greatest writer on the topics treated that has ever lived. 

You Will have in this book of selections many bright samples of his lofty thought, his 
matchless eloquence, his wonderful imagery, and his epigrammatic and poetic power. 

The book is designed for, and will be accepted by admiring friends as a rare personal 
souvenir. To help it serve this purpose, a fine steel portrait, with autograph fac-simile, 
has been prepared especially for it. In the more elegant styles of binding it is eminently 
suited for presentation purposes, for any season or occasion. 

CONTENTS 



Oration delivered on Deco- 
ration-Day, 1882, before 
the Grand Army of the Re- 
public, at the Academy of 
Music, N. Y., 

A Tribute to Ebon C. In- 
gersoll, 

A Vision of War, 

At a Child's Grave, 

Benefits for Injuries, 

We Build, 

A Tribute to the Re** Alex* 
ander Clark, 

The Grant Banquet, 

Apostrophe to Liberty, 

A Tribute to John U. Mills, 

The Warp and Woof, 

The Cemetery, 

Originality, 

Then and Now, 

Voltaire, 

I .azarus, 

What is Worship? 

Humboldt, 

God Silent, 

Alcohol, 

Auguste Comte, 

The Infidel, 

Napoleon, 

The Republic, 

Dawn of the New Day, 

Reformers, 

The Garden of Eden, 

Thomas Paine, 

The Age of Faith, 

Origin of Religion, 

The Unpardonable S* 

The Olive Branch. 



Free Will, 

The King of Death, 

The Wise Man, 

Bruno, 

The Real Bible, 

Benedict Spinoza, 

The First Doubt, 

The Infinite Horror, 

Nature, 

Night and Morning, 

The Conflict, 

Death of the Aged, 

The Charity of Extravagance, 

Woman, # 

The Sacred Myths, 

Inspiration, 

Religious Liberty of the 

Bible, 
The Laugh of a Child, 
The Christian Night, 
My Choice, 
Why? 

Imagination, 
Science, 

Here and There, 
If Death Ends All, 
How Long, 
Liberty, 
Jehovah anc 
The Fre* 
My 
Go~> r 



At the Grave of Benj. W. 

Parker, 
Apostrophe to Science, 
Elizur Wright, 
The Imagination, 
No Respecter of Persons, 
Abraham Lincoln, 
The Meaning of Law, 
Wha T . is Blasphemy, 
Some Reasons, 
Selections, 
Love, 

Origin and Destiny, 
Life. 

The Birthplace of Burns, 
Tribute to Henry Ward 

Beecher, 
Mrs. Ida Whiting Knowles, 
Art and Morality, 
Tribute to Roscoe Conkling, 
Tribute to Courtlandt Palmer, 
Tribute to Richard *r 



Th* 



mg, 



M 




M 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

■MP 

021 898 585 3 



METAL EDGE, INC. 2007 PH 7.5 TO 9.5 PAT. 



